54 MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS. 



did when in that of the larvae, devastating whole forests 

 in such a manner as not to leave a green leaf behind 

 them. 



147. Devastations committed by this Beetle. In the 

 Philosophical Transactions, for the year 1697, there is an 

 account of the appearance of these insects in certain parts 

 of Ireland and the ravages they committed there. " Mul- 

 titudes," says this statement, " appeared among the 

 trees and hedges in the daytime, hanging by the boughs 

 in clusters, like bees when they swarm. In this posture, 

 they continued, with little or no motion, during the 

 heat of the sun ; but toward evening they would all 

 disperse, and fly about with a strange humming noise, 

 like the beating of distant drums, and in such vast num- 

 bers that they darkened the air for the space of two or 

 three square miles. Persons travelling on the roads, or 

 abroad in the fields, found it very uneasy to make their 

 way through them, they would so beat and knock them- 

 selves against their faces in their flight, and with such 

 force as to make the place smart, and leave a mark be- 

 hind them. In a short time after their coming, they had 

 so entirely eaten up and destroyed all the leaves on the 

 trees for some miles around, that the whole country, 

 though in the middle of summer, was left as bare as in 

 the depth of winter ; and the noise they made in gnaw- 

 ing the leaves made a sound resembling the sawing of 

 timber. They also came into the gardens and destroyed 

 the buds, blossoms, and leaves of all the fruit-trees, so 

 that they left them perfectly naked ; nay, many that were 

 more delicate than the rest, lost their sap, as well as 

 leaves, and quite withered away, so that they never re- 

 covered again. 



148. Their numerous young, hatched from the eggs 

 which they had lodged under gfound, near the surface, did 

 still more harm in that close retirement, than all the flying 

 swarms of their parents had done abroad ; for this destruc- 

 tive brood, lying under ground,^ite up the roots of corn 

 and grass, and thus consumed the support of both man and 

 beast," Many other instances of similar devastations are 

 recorded to have been committed by these insects in differ- 

 ent parts of the world. 



